An advertisement is effective when an audience heed's its message. The audience may be encouraged to take action or consider an idea. And if the message is persuasive enough, the audience acts as the advertiser desires it to.
Much of the effectiveness of an advertisement lies in its ability to convey information. On radio and television, for example, advertisements for products are played during breaks in programming or included in the programming itself, such as by product placement. And online, advertisements are displayed adjacent to a web page's content or as part of it. These advertisements may convey information by telling a story or offering an opinion or a fact. Through the presentation of its message, advertisers hope to communicate the right information to persuade its audiences to follow a desired course of action.
But often an advertisement is unpersuasive. One common reason for this is that the audience did not learn information relevant to its interests. Some types of advertisements provide avenues for an audience to learn more about a topic of choice. For example, a person actively consuming media content by browsing web pages can select a hyperlink displayed on a website to learn more information about an advertised topic. But when media is consumed more passively, such as through television, radio or any device in the environment, a person might not even know the identity of an item of interest and would typically need to search for more information regarding the item of interest autonomously and strenuously. Doing so is generally cumbersome and inefficient, thus reducing the likelihood that the person receives appropriate informational advertisement and is ultimately persuaded by the advertisement. As a result, many advertisers lose opportunities to persuade audiences that would likely be receptive toward their messages.
The need exists for a system that overcomes the above problems, as well as one that provides additional benefits. Overall, the examples herein of some prior or related systems and their associated limitations are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of existing or prior systems will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the following Detailed Description.